|
|
CJEU as a Political Actor in the Termination of intra-EU BITs: Judicial Activism in Achmea Ruling
Juráš, Jan ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (advisor) ; Kasáková, Zuzana (referee)
The topic of the role and function of the Court of Justice of the European Union has been the subject of academic debate for quite some time. In recent years, a number of new studies have begun to examine judicial activism, also known as the process of judicialization of EU policy. It is a process by which the Court of Justice not only interprets the law, but directly creates it, thus becoming a full-fledged actor in the legislative and institutional framework of the EU. The work combines the topic of judicial activism with the issue of international investment protection in the EU, in which the Court of Justice of the EU has become a key actor by delivering the termination of intra-EU bilateral investment treaties between EU member states. In its judgment in the Achmea case, the Court of Justice ruled that these treaties are incompatible with the EU law system as investment arbitrations initiated on the basis of these treaties may undermine the autonomous position of the Court of Justice as the only institution that has a competency to interpret EU laws. The thesis also deals with the scale of the judicial activism in the Achmea ruling. Position of the other actors of the EU institutional framework is also presented. The work thus represents an interdisciplinary approach to the research of...
|
|
|
Analysis of the impact of cultural and political factors on European integration assessment based on public opinion of selected countries
Bročková, Klaudia ; Jelen, Libor (advisor) ; Anděl, Jiří (referee)
In the past few years, European integration has often encountered resistance from individual countries when deepening cooperation in specific European policies. The different sociocultural, political and historical backgrounds of the individual member states prove to be potentially problematic, and it appears there is also great diversity in the attitudes of European public opinion. The presented work deals with the issue of the perception of European integration in EU countries, with the aim of evaluating to what extent the current attitude of public opinion towards European integration can be explained by the cultural-political dimension of attitudes. Factor and regression analysis were used to examine the relationships and measure the significance of the impacts. The cultural-political dimension - represented by factors such as political assessment, immigration assessment, religion and traditionalism, and emotional attachment - explains, based on the results of the regression analysis, on average 22 % of the overall attitude towards European integration. However, the values differ significantly in the conditions of individual countries. The results also questioned the attachment to the national country or the importance of religiosity and traditionalism, as important predictors in rejecting...
|
|
|
SWIFT as a Tool Not Only for European Integration
Matejka, Ján ; Schlossberger, Otakar
The paper discusses the importance of The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (hereinafter 'SWIFT') not only for European integration. It partially maps its historical development with emphasis on the importance for mutual communication between financial institutions. At the same time, however, it can be a very suitable means of obtaining a range of information as evidence for criminal proceedings in clarifying financial crime offenses. In their research, the authors deal with various approaches to the processing of data obtained from the SWIFT system, which will be submitted to law enforcement authorities. These documents can then be linked to other information, which in turn will help clarify possible financial crime, especially in cross-border, or foreign overlap. The authors' study is based on the hypothesis that 'SWIFT information can contribute to the clarification / detection of financial crime'.
|
|
|
Checkmate! Losing with borders, winning with centers. The case of European integration
Kapanadze, Ketevani
This paper studies two major stages of European integration, the expansion of the European Union (EU) in 2004 and the Schengen Area in 2008, and their impacts on economic performance in subregions of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Using European regional data at the NUTS3 level and disaggregated synthetic control method, I construct counterfactuals for sub-regions of CEE countries. This approach allows me to assess regional treatment effects (RTEs) and to study the heterogeneous effects of European integration. I find that the benefits of EU and Schengen memberships to annual GDP per capita are approximately 10% less in border regions, relative to interior areas. The results expose regional economic disparities, as border regions lose relative to interior regions since European integration. Furthermore, integration facilitators in border regions such as fewer geographical barriers, more service employment, and positive attitudes toward the EU did not reduce economic disparities. The results show that the gap persists, regardless of some complementarities. Thus, the main implication of this paper is that sub-regions of CEE countries are far from being fully converged, and that European integration instead seems to have spurred sub-regional divergence.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
EU Policy towards autonomous regions with a potential to be independent - Catalonia and Scotland
Havlín, Kryštof ; Mejstřík, Martin (advisor) ; Kasáková, Zuzana (referee)
The bachelor's thesis aims to analyze the policy of the European Union towards European autonomous regions which have the potential to become independent. It focuses especially on the issue of EU membership for regions that have a tendency to separate from an EU Member State. Two major separatist events took place in the European Union in the last decade. In 2014, Scotland declared a referendum approved by the central government on independence from the UK. In 2017, the independent Republic of Catalonia, that wanted to secede from the Kingdom of Spain on the basis of an illegal referendum, was declared. The passive attitude of the European Union towards the aggravated situation in the territory of its member state led me to address the issue from the perspective of the EU whose representatives consider these developments to be internal affairs of the states. The main goal of the bachelor's thesis is to find out what the approach of the EU to the mentioned regions is in terms of potential membership in case these regions become independent. At the same time, the bachelor's thesis should clarify why the European Union holds these positions and what their legal framework is. The paper also presents hypothetical scenarios for the accession of potentially independent regions of Catalonia and Scotland to...
|
|
|
The Court of Justice of the European Union: the engine of integration?
Veselý, Petr ; Plechanovová, Běla (advisor) ; Parízek, Michal (referee)
This thesis deals with the topic of influence of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the process of European integration. For this purpose, the thesis asks the following question: "How has the Court of Justice of the European Union in selected cases contributed to the strengthening of European integration?" After an overview of the methodological basis, the thesis thoroughly examines the main theoretical approaches and authors that focused on the topic of Court of Justice and its influence on European integration: neofunctionalism, intergovernmentalism, neorationalism, supranationalism and legalistic approach. In the third part, five landmark cases of the ECJ have been chosen for detailed analysis: Van Gend en Loos, Costa vs. E.N.E.L., Internationale Handelsgesellschaft, Les Verts and Francovich. The thesis not only maps the political situation surrounding their announcement, but also the aftermath, consequences and reactions of member states to the judgements. In its last part, the thesis attempts to connect the theoretical approaches with the findings of the aforementioned analysis of landmark decisions. The thesis concludes that the Court of Justice in fact did contribute to the strengthening of European integration, namely by establishing the principles of direct effect, superiority...
|
|
|
Cleavage politics and Europeanisation-induced transformation of the national political space - the case of the Czech Republic
Stahl, Cosimo ; Vykoukal, Jiří (advisor) ; Cibulková, Petra (referee) ; Hanley, Seán (referee)
Bibliographic note STAHL, C. (2014): Cleavage Politics and Europeanisation-induced transformation of the national political space - The Case of the Czech Republic, 94 p. Master thesis, Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of International Studies. Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Jiří Vykoukal, CSc. Abstract This research seeks to map the national political space and assess the prevailing cleavage patterns in the Czech Republic. Processes of globalisation and Europeanisation have left their imprint in Western Europe - splitting the electorate into winners and losers of globalisation and denationalisation. This demarcation vs. integration magnet is also relevant in the CEE region - altering and reshuffling the underlying structure of party competition and EU contestation. By employing quantitative content analysis of print media the prevailing issue and cleavage dimensions will be reconstructed both during early stages of democratic transition (1996 Parliamentary elections) and after the 2004-EU-enlargement (2010 elections). While the political discourse and politics in the 1990s are primarily structured by issues of economic transition and post-communist transformation (underlying the classical socio-economic cleavage between market and state), in 2010 also cultural and post-materialist political...
|
|
|
The influence of Cyprus' accession to the European Union on a possible reunification of the island
Chábová, Tereza ; Váška, Jan (advisor) ; Najšlová, Lucia (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines the Cyprus' accession to the European Union and focuses on how this accession influenced a possible solution of the Cyprus question. The objective is to find an answer to the question how the accession influenced a possible reunification of the island, and what the significance of the European Union in the prospects on solving the Cyprus issue was. The thesis focuses on the development of the reunification process before the accession, on the Annan plan and on the following referendum, in which Greek Cypriots voted against the reunification of Cyprus. The thesis analyzes the development after the Cyprus' integration into the EU without the northern part of the island, where the European Union has been trying for many years to end the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community. This paper also analyzes the relations between Turkey and Cyprus, which significantly affect the European politics and the Cyprus issue itself. The thesis concludes that the Cyprus' accession set back the reunification process despite the efforts made by European Union to end the isolation of Turkish Cypriots, and to prepare the northern part of Cyprus for future integration into the EU. The fact that in 2016 Cyprus has again a good chance at uniting northern and southern part of the island...
|
guest ::
